Medill Innocence Project

Professor David Protess leaps into freed prisoner Anthony Porter's embrace in February 1999 as then-students Shawn Armbrust (back turned), Syandene Rhodes-Pitts and Tom McCann watch.

Founded in 1999, the Medill Innocence Project gives undergraduate students firsthand experience in investigating possible miscarriages of justice under the tutelage of renowned Professor David Protess.

Protess and his journalism students have developed evidence that freed 10 innocent men, five of them from death row, since 1996. The project's work, which has been featured on "60 Minutes," "48 Hours," "Dateline NBC" and the front pages of The New York Times and the Washington Post, has been cited for stimulating a national debate on the death penalty.

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan credited the Project's investigations, particularly in freeing death row inmate Anthony Porter in 1999, with helping provide the impetus for his moratorium on the death penalty in January 2000 and his subsequent decision to grant clemency to all death row inmates before leaving office in January 2003.

One of the four prisoners whom the governor exonerated outright, Aaron Patterson, had been the subject of the Project's investigations since its inception. The exoneration came on the basis of new evidence of his innocence -- and the guilt of two other men in the crime for which Patterson was accused -- developed by Protess and his students.

"A system that depends on young journalism students is flawed," Ryan said in his speech granting the blanket clemency, during which he also praised Protess for being a teacher who has "poured his heart and soul" into helping his students free innocent men.

Investigative Journalism
Beyond its public policy implications, the Project has inspired numerous Medill students to pursue careers as investigative reporters, and educators say the media attention received by the Porter and the earlier Ford Heights Four cases has revived interest in and applications to journalism schools across the country.

The Project has received funding to hire an administrative assistant to help screen and respond to requests for assistance from prisoners and their advocates, and to contract with a private investigator to help locate key sources and ensure students' safety while they are engaged in investigations.

The Project is now part of the Innocence Network, a consortium of more than 30 journalism and law schools across the country, of which Protess is a founding board member. And Medill's Project has extended its own geographic reach beyond Illinois, sending students to investigate murder cases in Texas, Indiana and Michigan. Results are pending on all three:

The investigation of Texas death row prisoner Hank Skinner led to new DNA tests that appear to exonerate him, prompting his attorneys to file a motion for a new trial.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted a writ of habeus corpus and ordered a new trial for Indiana death row inmate Steven Miller.
Student investigators are currently working on the case of Maurice Carter in Michigan, who has been incarcerated for 27 years and is sentenced to life in prison. A Michigan judge recently granted a hearing on Carter's claim of innocence based on newly discovered evidence developed by Medill students.

David Protess
Protess himself received two prestigious national awards: Court TV's second annual "Scales of Justice" award, their highest honor, which was presented by the previous year's winner, Erin Brockovich; and the National Education Association's H. Council Trenholm Memorial Award, for the impact of his and his students' investigative reporting on human and civil rights.

The project has received funding from about 40 individuals and a handful of foundations. Leading individual contributors include Fred Eychaner (BSJ66), Daymond John, Bari Brooks, Marjorie Benton, and Henry and Karen De Fiebre.

To inquire about giving opportunities, please contact Anne Sullivan.